Tag: Ambidexterity

Getting the Conversation Started

Hello again Humantific readers. This week we are returning to our Secrets of Innovation Series by sharing an overview of the Ambidexterity Continuum and how we use it conversationally. It’s a simple device that can be powerful in initial conversations.

As many of our readers will know: we often work with organizational leaders who are encountering complex marketplace dynamics that lead them in one way or another to find their way into the subject of what today is often called Operational Dexterity, Ambidexterity or Dual Engine strategy. We find that most often leaders arrive into the subject through the complex challenges they are encountering rather then via academic literature or theories.

Some of our readers will know that Harvard Business Review and The IBM Institute for Business Value, among others have, in recent years, published articles on the subject of ambidexterity in organizations attempting to make some of the more academically inclined research/literature a little more user friendly to business audiences.

“One of the most important lessons is that ambidextrous organizations need ambidextrous senior teams and managers—executives who have the ability to understand and be sensitive to the needs of very different kinds of businesses.” Charles O’Reilly & Michael Tushman, The Ambidextrous Organization.

More recently it has been interesting to see several global management consultancies including Accenture, Deloitte and Bain & Company also arrive into the subject publishing point-of-view papers suggesting firms of the future will have underlying ambidextrous operating strategies.

“We’re beginning to see what the next generation of successful companies will look like….The firm of the future will manage two types of businesses—“Engine 1” of its core and “Engine 2” of its more innovative businesses.” Bain & Company 2017.

…..As a next generation of leaders arrive we are seeing significant interest in ambidexterity as it relates to inclusive culture building.

Ultimately leaders come to the realization that ambidexterity is not an abstraction but rather is representational cognitively of collective and inclusive us. For diverse organizations ambidexterity is home.

Humantific CoFounder GK VanPatter writes about the state of “Firm of The Future” Skill-Building. Ambidexterity often appears in numerous depictions of the arriving future originating in the managagement consulting community. What is missing from that picture?

“Hello Humantific readers. In this post we return to the subject of ambidexterity in organizations. The recent report entitled “The Firm of the Future” from Bain & Company is one of the latest management advisory publications pointing out the importance of and shift towards operationalizing ambidexterity in future focused organizations.

“We’re beginning to see what the next generation of successful companies will look like….The firm of the future will manage two types of businesses—“Engine 1” of its core and “Engine 2” of its more innovative businesses.” Bain & Company 2017.

Accenture, Deloitte, Bain & Company, Detecon and others have all recently been offering up similar observations and advice to organizational leaders. Others such as Charles O’Reilly & Michael Tushman of Harvard Business School writing in Harvard Business Review have previously written on the subject reflecting their own research. It is a capacity referred to under different names that include Ambidexterity, Dual Engines, Exploiting/Exploring, Double Excellence, Dual Innovation, Integrative Innovation, etc. With numerous different takes on the subject now tabled, some more practical then others, what they are all talking about is the notion of future oriented firms enabling two engines or streams of innovation, each with different characteristics.”

Building on our work in progress Humantific CoFounder GK VanPatter shares insights on operationalizing civic innovation capacity building today. Humantific is proud to be a founding member of HumanCities Collaborative a new multi-firm consortium created to help civic leaders operationalize human-centered civic innovation in tangible, understandable and scalable ways. Continue Reading..